A Lot Can Happen in a Year!

I obviously hadn’t looked at my blog, Not a Natural Blonde, in a while, but today while editing my profile for LinkedIn.com, I was in for a shock. The last piece I wrote was in December 2010! Yikes! Well, I had THOUGHT of several things to write! I just hadn’t DONE it! Let me catch you up:

January 2011

I quit my job as Coordinator for ER Admitting at Valley Medical Center and went back to being a registrar again. I also went from evening shift to nights—another big change—in hopes that I would be able to find more time to spend with my horse and getting myself back in shape.

March

I bought a new horse, or I should say Sam bought me a new horse. After many “discussions” about what our retirement is going to look like, I finally convinced Sam that horses were going to be a permanent fixture—something he should know by now, since I’ve had at least one of them most of my life.

My new horse is a 10-year-old unregistered bay Quarter Horse mare named Schelline, and her claim to fame is that she was her former owner’s grandfather’s elk hunting horse. Grandpa reputedly fired his 30-0-6 rifle off her back and then packed the meat home with her. What I can tell you is that, while she doesn’t have as much training as I expected her to have, she is a lovely horse with a pleasant disposition, and we seem to get along fine—even though she seems to have what I call a Thoroughbred brain. She’s a sweetheart and seems to like her new home, though my other mare (my 27 year-old Arab mare Hadarah) tolerates her grudgingly because Schelline is the new boss. That’s life as an equine.

Unfortunately, instead of spending the summer trail riding, I fell at work and got a fractured dislocation of my left shoulder! I’m nearly through with physical therapy now (September), so I hope to start trail riding SOON.

May

Sam and I went back to Northeastern Oregon for a brief family visit, and in the meantime I put my old Tex Tan Western saddle up for sale at Elgin Boot & Saddle, the tack and feed store in Elgin, Oregon now run by my niece Chelsea and her husband Chris. I also ordered a brand-new custom-made Tucker trail saddle and all its accoutrements.

July

My 64th birthday: Gosh, I don’t FEEL that old!

August

I finally published my book of poetry, Howling at the Dark Side of the Moon, and it has turned out as well as I’d hoped it would. I am still in almost daily contact with the publisher (Trafford), however, because it’s becoming necessary to hound them to completely fulfill my contract. I have yet to receive the rest of the hard bound copies due me, plus today I learned it will take four to six weeks to get my promotional kit! Good grief, I could do one up myself on the computer in about half an hour and have Staples print the whole works off in a couple of days. Now I am looking into starting my own publishing company.

September

Vacation again, and off to Oregon to pickup my new saddle that I’ve been saving for. It’s a beauty, and I can hardly wait to throw it on Schelline and head off down the trail. Physical therapy for my shoulder will run into mid-October, but I’m gaining strength and flexibility every day and looking forward to getting back into riding my horses on a daily basis, as I used to.

I also have a number of knitting projects ahead for winter, but most of those are for evenings spent indoors while watching TV. This summer I discovered Noro, a Japanese company making a number of hand painted natural yarns made of mostly wool and silk. It has been called the most beautiful yarn in the world, and once you see and feel it, you won’t wonder why. One project I would love to make is a gorgeous hooded jacket, but I haven’t bought the yarn yet. At $18.95 per hank, and the project calls for 15 of them, it may take a while. This takes the subject of “yarn stash” to a completely new level! We shall see if I make it, but if I do, you will know.

I’m certain that much more happened over the course of the past year, but these are the highlights. And, I shall certainly not be so remiss in the future!

Enjoy, stay safe, and remember that the best things in life are not things.

It’s the Holiday Season!

Do you ever get the feeling that you grew up in an alternate reality or something? The Holiday season makes me aware of so many things other people take for granted that were never part of my life. Maybe it’s because I’m from a different generation or something, but I don’t seem to have a common footing sometimes.

For instance, the other day I overheard a co-worker talking about her family’s tradition of getting Santa photos with all the children, which they have done since she was a little girl. I never had a photo taken with Santa, though I do remember one Christmas when Santa came to our little town (La Grande, Oregon), and I got to meet the reindeer. That was pretty special, because they were really cute little guys, and I didn’t know reindeer were so small. Santa smelled funny too. He’d had a few nips of Jim Beam to keep warm (that was before I knew what Jim Beam was).

When I was a kid, everybody in the family gave gifts to everyone else. We didn’t draw names, but then nobody expected to get expensive gifts either. We knew we’d get clothes from Mom and Dad, and maybe a new doll or board game, and our stockings “hung by the chimney with care” would be filled with oranges, candy, and nuts. An iPad, plasma HDTV, or Lexus would have been things that movie stars wished for, but not us, and most gifts I remember were made by the people giving them. As a kid, I usually made candy and cookies as gifts until I learned to sew and crochet (I didn’t learn to knit until after I went to college), though my folks would always give me ten or twenty dollars (a fortune in those days) to buy presents for family members. Grandma and I would go downtown to Falk’s (the local department store), and I roamed the aisles looking for just the perfect gifts. One year (I couldn’t have been more than five) I remember buying Grandma a bottle of cologne and listening to the store loudspeaker playing “Silver Bells.” It was snowing outside and seemed a most magical day. Grandma loved the cologne so much she never used it but kept it on display in a prominent spot in the bathroom, so after that, I found out what KIND of perfume she liked before making a purchase.

Back in the days when watching your waistline was not yet in fashion, Christmas was a time of frantic baking. I remember spending days in Grandma’s kitchen making sugar and candy cane cookies, fudge, peanut brittle, and fruitcakes. Grandma made pies, and on Christmas Day we always had a huge turkey, because Christmas dinner was always at her house. People sat around in the living room before and after dinner (there wasn’t room in the kitchen for more than three people) and TALKED. Yes, I know—that was in the era before TV, but my family was never into football games, and I can’t remember even hearing one on the radio. We listened to Christmas carols instead.

We went to church Christmas morning and then to Grandma’s for dinner. I always got to help Grandma cook, and I loved being her little helper, so I was the one who set the table with the damask linen tablecloth, china, and silver. Most of all, however—and I’m sure this is true for all of you reading this—the best part of Christmas was being with the ones I loved. Christmas is a time for sharing that love with everyone else too, so I wish all of you a very Merry Christmas and a most happy, healthy, and prosperous New Year!

Endings and Beginnings

The old year is winding down, and I’ve found it’s the perfect time to think of new beginnings. As of January 5th, I will begin a new job (actually, I’m returning to my PREVIOUS job), and there will necessarily be several other changes linked to that.

For instance, I will be working a different shift (at least for a while) so I hope to be better able to add in time for a daily walk with my dog and several daily hours with my horse. Roxi and I have both gotten a bit pudgy these past few months due to the lack of exercise, and though my horse Hadarah isn’t fat, she is suffering from a lack of activity as well. At least she’s seen me this winter, but that’s not really good enough. Also, spending time with my critters every day is the best thing I know of in terms of reducing my stress level, which has gotten rather far out of hand lately.

With all of that said, I’ve turned my attention back to my goals—MY goals, which had sadly fallen by the wayside over the past few years, what with buying and furnishing a house, and moving into a different job at work. I found that what I really wanted to do with my life had gotten lost in all the daily chores and tasks, and since I’m not getting any younger, it was past time for getting back to them.

So, yes, I DO have some New Year’s Resolutions this year. Yes, some of them DO have to do with losing weight and getting in shape, but the difference here is that in order to achieve those goals I was talking about, I HAVE to do it for myself, and it has nothing to do with fitting into a bikini. Please, I’m over 60, so that isn’t even on my horizon!

One thing I want to do next year is take a series of intensive riding lessons at the National School of Academic Equitation (there really is such a place) up in Snohomish County. Before I can do that, however, I need to get myself into better physical condition and save my money, because it isn’t cheap. At least they have school horses, so I don’t have to worry about trailering mine up there—an ordeal I would just as soon avoid. While Hadarah has perfectly good trailer manners, I just don’t want to have to deal with renting a truck and trailer or persuading one of my friends to haul us up there! Several weeks of instruction should give me the boost I’ve needed in terms of honing my riding skills. And in case you are wondering, yes I do know how to ride—but I want to improve enough to be able to show in dressage classes one of these days. There’s a lot more to riding than being able to stay on while your horse hauls you around on the trails. If that were all I wanted to accomplish, I’ve already done it.

I will be sending the manuscript for my book of poetry off to the publisher in another couple of weeks. It’s actually been done for a while, but I still had a few loose ends to tie up. It will be nice to be able to hold it in my hand and say, “I did this.” And, I really did all of the writing, editing, and formatting myself.

Sam is remodeling the small front bedroom in our house so I can use it for my office and craft room. Wow, a place where I have a real desk, and my yarn and sewing things are organized, not stacked around in bags all over the floor! I even have a real drop-leaf work table! I’ll have my own TV and wireless headphones too, so I can watch TV while knitting without bothering Sam (he despises TV).

Now to get past the Christmas Holidays . . . .

An Update to the 2010 WEG

Y'all will remember in my recent blog post on the 2010 World Equestrian Games, I commented that Moorlands Totilas, the horse winning the Gold medal for the Dressage Freestyle (he won the Golds in the Grand Prix dressage competition, the Grand Prix Special, and Team Dressage as well--a highly unusual clean sweep, plus his Freestyly scored 92%--this is like scoring a perfect 10 folks!) was sold shortly after the WEG was over to Paul Schockemule of Germany. Dressage-News.com posted the news that Totilas was slated to breed 175 mares this season out of 350 applications, before he was sold. Mr. Schockemule paid the equivalent of $13.2 million for this 10-year-old stallion, so we should expect to see lots of Jrs running around in a few years! I hope they're half as good as their daddy is.

The 2010 World Equestrian Games

I am so sorry this piece is a little dated! I wrote it and then got sidetracked--but I felt it was worth posting anyway. The WEG was fantastic, and I very much enjoyed what I watched of it. Wish I could have seen it in person though! The picture I've attached shows Edward Gal of the Netherlands riding Totilas. This pair took the gold medals in Dressage, for each of the competitions. I echo many other sentiments, I am sure, when I say I would "consider cutting off a limb for a ride" on this horse!

For the first time since the World Equestrian Games (WEG) began in Sweden in 1990, they were held in the United States this year at the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington. Competitors from over 60 countries around the world sent 1,700 athletes (800 human and 900 equine) to compete for 16 days in what essentially amounts to the “other” Olympic Games for equestrian sports only. Always before it has been held in Europe, but this year was different—it was finally our turn, and nobody does horses like Kentucky.

Three of the disciplines would already be familiar to people who watch the Olympics: Dressage, Three-Day Eventing, and Show (or Stadium) Jumping. The WEG also included competition in Reining, Vaulting, Endurance, Combined Driving, and Para-Olympics. Over a period of 16 days, all eyes in the world equestrian community were focused on Kentucky, and NBC Sports carried taped coverage of highlights three week-ends in a row for a total of six hours, which is almost unheard of. The Olympic Games equestrian events never fared so well! And if you were a real fan, you could watch live, streamed action (or video on demand) through Universal Sports or FEI.TV. You could read blogs from a number of different writers and read breaking news as it happened. You could watch different video packages, too, depending on your interest, and now you can purchase DVDs of the events through the Kentucky Horse Park Web site. I can tell you, I plan on watching all of this several times again! Well, I won’t be watching ALL of it, but I will be watching the Dressage and Three-Day Eventing pretty closely. Just for the record, my all-time favorite equestrian sport is Three-Day Eventing, with Dressage a close second. I’ve never competed as an eventer, because I fell off too much when jumping, and considering my age felt it was not a wise choice for me, but that didn’t affect my love of the sport!

Few people outside the equestrian community have any concept of what it takes to bring all these horses and their riders together to compete. For many of the smaller countries, it can be likened to putting a man on the moon. All of the competitors must be flown to their destination, not to mention the feed, equipment, and support personnel that go along with them, and that trip is not without peril. Several years ago the entire Mexican equestrian team and their horses went down in a crash on the way to a Pan American Games competition, the speculation being that one of the horses got loose on board and unbalanced the plane. Few people are aware too, that up until just a few years ago Australians were forced to sell any of the horses taken to outside International competitions, because they were barred from re-entering the country for health reasons.

The costs of equipment are staggering too. If you watch any WEG footage, take note of the helmets many of the eventers and stadium jumpers are wearing. Those GPS brand helmets retail for over $500, and that’s just a start (No, I don’t have one of those!—I’ve got a well-worn Troxel Legacy that I bought several years ago and need to replace!) . Saddle pads can run $150+ each, those ear nets go for about $80+, and saddles are around $2000+. Then there is what the riders wear: Breeches $200+, body armor $300+, custom boots $1000+, dressage frock or hunt coats $600+. Horses and riders need loads of miscellaneous gear, too: Anti-sweat sheets, stable sheets, water buckets, salt blocks, clippers, tack trunks, grooming brushes, etc., etc., etc. No way around it, competing at any level is very pricey, especially if you wear the latest in fashion and technology. Yikes, I get depressed just thinking about all that!

In the end there were many surprises and upsets, as there are in any sports competition. There were moments of shining glory that were so moving and beautiful they brought tears to my eyes. If you can watch nothing else, please see the brilliantly performed Dressage Freestyle ridden by the Gold medalist Edward Gal of the Netherlands on Moorlands Totilas, and you will never forget it. Several different videos are available on YouTube. One unhappy piece of news that I've heard since the end of the Games is that Moorlands, the owner of Totilas, has already sold him to Paul Schockemuhle of Germany. Mr. Schockemuhle, once a world-class show jumping competitor, is now a horse breeder, so Totilas won't be with Mr. Gal anymore (a crying shame), and he may not even be used in competition any longer, which is a real crime for a horse so brilliantly talented. Money talks, however, and we lesser humans must always remember that "It's the MONEY, stupid!" Never mind ART! Pul-leaze!

Another real disappointment was that the number two-rated pair in the dressage world was eliminated from competition, because the horse somehow managed to get a small cut on his tongue which bled for a few minutes. It had to happen though, because everyone is now supremely conscious of the welfare of the horses, and that is as it should be. Other disappointments came as Team USA saw its hopes of a medal in the Three-Day competition go up in smoke when Karen O’Connor’s young horse Mandiba had a refusal and then knocked down the gate jump in their Stadium round. Then Rodrigo Pessoa of Brazil, whom many believed would win the gold medal in show jumping, saw his hopes dashed when riding the Final Four competition for best horse and best rider. At the same time, others rose to prominence that had never been heard of before, surprising everyone—perhaps not least themselves. For instance, Abdullah Al Sharbatly of Saudi Arabia had the good fortune to take home the silver medal for Saudi Arabia at his first world-class competition--quite a break for a very talented young man.

In the end, 11 countries out of the 60 or so represented took home at least one medal, with the United States winning a total of four (two golds, one silver, and one bronze), just besting the medal count of Germany (two golds, two bronzes), and Great Britain (one gold, three silvers). It was less than any of them had hoped for, but each one was well-deserved and hard won. In any case, the equestrian community and equestrian sports are the real winners, not to mention International cooperation and good will! Now let us look forward with anticipation to the 2012 Olympics.

Sam's Vision Quest

As many of you are aware, my husband Sam is off on a solo trek through the wilderness of Northeastern Oregon right now, pursuing what most of us would call a Vision Quest. While many of you think he’s totally insane (and that I must be too for allowing him to do this), I have to tell you that I support what he’s doing 100%. In fact, I’ve been engaged in my own quest in my own way for some time now. Besides, tell me just how I would stop him? Draw all the money out of his bank account? Let the air out of his tires? Be a complete bitch on the subject and insist that he “just forget it, or else?” Please! You all know that’s not me, and perhaps you don’t have the kind of relationship that Sam and I do. We don’t tell each other what we can or cannot do. We can raise objections, if we think the other person is totally off his/her rocker, or if the budget won’t support it, but we have pretty generous limits in our marriage. If it’s something that we really want to do, and we are willing to make the requisite sacrifices of time and money while meeting our other obligations, then our attitude is, “Hey, go for it man!”

I did have two requirements of my own before Sam left on his trip: (1) He needed to have some way of letting me know where he was and that he was all right; and (2) He had to have extra insurance to cover any possible rescue efforts or injuries he might incur. I did not feel these were unreasonable requests, nor did he, so Sam bought a Spot Tracker at REI and paid the subscription's costs of activation and tracking, plus he paid for the accompanying Lloyds of London insurance that went with it.

Sam has been planning this trip for at least the past year and possibly even longer—and I mean PLANNING. Down to the last little gnat, if you know what I mean. While he’s gone, he plans to take a bundle of photographs for at least one book he wants to write, and today I decided that I would keep a journal of sorts too, printing out each Spot Tracker message and the locator photos that go with it, so I can record Sam’s journey in my own way. For some reason, neither of us has ever been able to access the Spot Tracker shared Web page (I always get a “Server is busy, try again later” message), but that’s okay. I AM getting the E-mails whenever the beacon sends a message.

So Honey, have a great time! I know you wish I were there, and so do I, but that time will come. This is your time to do what you need to do, and those experiences should not always be shared with someone else—at least not at the moment when you are engaged in doing them. I look forward to hearing all about your journey and looking at all the incredible photographs when you return. I know they will be awesome.

The New Zombies

Tell me, am I the only one who is upset and annoyed by the current trend of so many people walking around with their noses glued to their cell phones? Whatever happened to life without constant interruptions and being continuously hooked up to everyone (that is, everyone else who’s plugged in) on the planet? Whatever happened to “normal” life, where you talked to the person who was in front of you, and actually looked at them and paid attention? I am very unhappy with and disturbed by this behavior. It reminds me far too much of the Borg of Star Trek Next Generation fame.

Who would have guessed that the telephone and the Internet would have such consequences? Not me. I happily got my first cell phone so I could call 911 if I fell off my horse on a trail ride (I used to ride by myself all the time—and I often still do) and to locate my husband Sam if I needed to ask or tell him something. It was a convenience to ME, and I rarely used it.

Likewise with the Internet: Sam and I got our first PC, courtesy of a friend who used to rebuild them and give them away (it was his hobby and way of giving back to others), because Sam was writing a book. Our friend Tim came by for a visit one afternoon and found Sam literally cutting and pasting his book copy on the living room floor and told Sam that there was a better way. The next thing we knew, we were signed up for Qwest dial-up and had our own E-mail accounts. Wow! Sam pretty much stuck to writing his book, but as for me, I was plugged into the world and everything I could ask for on the Internet. I jumped in and basically never looked back, shopping for Christmas presents and paying all my bills on-line—that is, until I got onto Face book. That is such an incredible time suck that I refuse to go there more than once a month, and I’m considering chucking it entirely, I hate it so much!

I really haven’t been unset with most incarnations of modern day Tech up to now. I feel comfortable with most of it in fact, happily playing my iPod Touch and watching TV shows on my dinner break at work, for example. I used to look forward to whatever E-mails all my friends would forward me every day like a kid on Christmas morning, and I spent a great deal of time reading, replying, and forwarding them on—that is, until my PC got a virus from one. That put a sudden end to enjoying all those attachments. Then too, it occurred to me that all of this was replacing real human interaction. Unlike many people, however, I don’t walk around plugged into my iPod all day long. In some ways, I think the iPod phenomenon may have been partly to blame for the current texting craze, but then who knows how it really got started?

Texting has gone beyond being a craze or an addiction. It is dangerous and absurd! Just the other day I watched a woman (and not a teenager) cross the street at a major intersection without glancing up even once from texting on her cell phone! I’m sure she believed she was perfectly safe, but seriously, I would never do that. If a car had come around the corner and hit her, she would have never known. Then there is the obvious danger of texting while driving. People who do that should have their licenses revoked, their heads examined, and their priorities re-evaluated—and that’s when they are on their own time. Doing social networking while on the job is just plain stealing, in addition to everything else.

Then there’s the appalling rudeness these folks exhibit. I’ve encountered it a number of times while at work with people who can’t put their phones down for the 30 seconds or so it takes to answer my questions and do my job, and I have to say I’ve completely lost patience with them. When they are ready to talk to me, then they can let me know, otherwise I’m not wasting my time being background noise. I’ve even had a couple of them who were really clueless accuse ME of being rude, because I refused to tolerate their rude behavior—and believe me, I’m not about to start.

No, zombies are no longer limited to being the shambling undead in the movies; they have pulses now, and you can find them practically everywhere. These are probably less aware of their surroundings than traditional zombies of Voodoo lore. Those at least knew what they were doing on an elementary level, and zombie-dom was usually not their fault. Maybe one day, medicine will advance to the point where they can just have their phones grafted onto their heads, or put on a special pair of contact lenses. This last is no joke—it’s new technology that’s in the pipeline, according to a brief segment I saw on the TV news not long ago. When that happens, my friends, no one will be safe. As the Borg always say, “Resistance is futile.”